“It would be wonderful if I could see the end of civilization during my lifetime.”

The characters are born from repetition.

I never read reviews. I’m not interested. But I value a lot the reactions of the spectators.

I think 2-D animation disappeared from Disney because they made so many uninteresting films.

As humans grew stronger, I think that we became quite arrogant, losing the sorrow of ‘we have no other choice.’

I’d rather be a pig than a fascist.

I make films as a business, not as a cultural endeavor.

The characters are born from repetition.

Modern life is so thin and shallow and fake. I look forward to when developers go bankrupt, Japan gets poorer and wild grasses take over.

I’m not going to make movies that tell children, “You should despair and run away”.

Children understand intuitively that the world they have been born into is not a blessed world.

Stop trying. Take long walks. Look at scenery. Doze off at noon. Don’t even think about flying. And then, pretty soon, you’ll be flying again.

Our lives are like the wind or like sounds. We come into being, resonate with each other. Then fade away.

We depict hatred, but it is to depict that there are more important things. We depict a curse, to depict the joy of liberation.

If you release your subconscious it becomes really hard to live a social or family life.

The winds of time eventually turn them into the tools of industrial civillisation. It’s never unscathed.

First: don’t panic! Second: don’t panic! And third: did I mention not to panic?!

One could surely argue that the Buddhist tradition, taken as a whole, represents the richest source of contemplative wisdom that any civilization has produced.

CIVILISATION is not to be judged by the rapidity of communication, but by the value of what is communicated.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

CO2 is the exhaling breath of our civilization, literally… Changing that pattern requires a scope, a scale, a speed of change that is beyond what we have done in the past.

Civilization is always in danger when those who have never learned to obey are given the right to command.

Style is about the choices you make to create the aspects of civilization that you wish to uphold.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values.